How to hide the App Store on SharePoint 2013 & 2016

After disabling the App Store in SharePoint (so our internal users couldn't download apps from the app store) the App Store icon still appeared on the left navigation; when clicked, and ugly message appeared.

"Sorry, apps are turned off.  If you know who runs the server, tell them to enable apps."

Well, this isn't very useful.  

After a call to Microsoft Support, I was instructed to hide the App Store instead.

Here are the steps to hide the App Store, which includes hiding the following:

• SharePoint Store
• Your Requests
• Manage Licenses

1. Make a backup of the AddAnApp.aspx file located in C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server Extensions\16\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS
2. Add the following to the AddAnApp.asxp file on ALL SHAREPOINT SERVERS IN THE FARM
   Search for
   
ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderAdditionalPageHead" runat="server">
   
   Then copy the following below and paste it under the previous line :
   
   

   <script

   language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

               

       window.addEventListener('load', function(){

                           

           function getAll(selector){

                                       

           return Array.prototype.slice.apply(document.querySelectorAll(selector));

                          

           }            

                          

           getAll('.ms-storefront-divider').forEach(function(divider){

                                       

               divider.style.display = 'none';

                           

           });                

                          

           getAll('a').forEach(function(link){

                                       

               if (link.innerHTML == 'Manage Licenses' || link.innerHTML == 'Your Requests' ||

               link.innerHTML == 'SharePoint Store' ) {

                                                  

                   link.style.display = 'none';

                                    

   }

                           

   });

               

   });

   </script>

   
   
   
   
3. NOTE: If new servers are added to the farm, the AddAnApp.aspx file will need to be replaced with these changes
   NOTE: To show the SharePoint Store, Manage Licenses, and Your Requests, remove the code
4. URL Hacking into the hidden areas: Since the hide is just textual, you can still get to the links by hitting the URL
   1. SharePoint Store: .... _layouts/15/storefront.aspx
   2. Your Requests: append to the addanapp.aspx url #mcg=4
   3. Manage Licenses: append to the addanapp.aspx url #mcg=3
5. Disable "App State Update" Timer Job Go to Central Admin > Monitoring > Timer Jobs > Review Job Definitions and filter by Failed Jobs, you should see a failed Job for "App State Update". click on the job, then disable it.

Happy SharePointing :)

~ Kristin